Skyscraper
by Randomestfandoms
Summary: Child genius turned orphan, Katarina counted on her own hacking skills to keep her under the radar. And they do, until her research on the aliens that killed her parents put her on Tony Stark's own radar, and into the Avengers' custody. She's no hero, but nothing comes between Katarina and her family; not her biological family, and not the weird group of misfits she calls her own


Child genius turned orphan, Katarina was counting on her own hacking skills to keep her under the radar. And they do, until she gets caught hacking into Stark Industries, looking for answers regarding the aliens that killed her parents in New York, and suddenly she's not just on a radar, she's on Tony Stark's own radar. When he decides to take her in, no one expects it to go well, but she soon makes a place for herself on the team and in their hearts. She's not a superhero, far from it, but she's a hero in her own right, and nothing comes between Katarina and her family; not her biological family, and not the weird group of misfits and gods that she calls her own.

Disclaimer- hopefully this goes without saying, but I don't own anything except for my ideas

Fic Title is from Skyscraper by Demi Lovato

NOTES: This is actually a rewrite of a fic I wrote over 7 years ago, immediately after the first Avengers movie, and I'm so excited to share the new and improved version!

Also, I've changed a fair amount of the timeline to fit my needs, so the battle of Manhattan took place on May 4th, 2013 instead of May 4th, 2012!

(For anyone interested, Kat's faceclaims are Sophie Turner and Summer Fontana)

**Skyscraper**

**Prologue**

"God fucking dammit," Katarina sighed—it wasn't the language that anyone would expect out of the shy eleven-year-old, but she figured it was warranted.

First her parents had died in the alien invasion in May, and she'd had to hack a few different databases to keep herself from being tossed into foster care or whatever, and now her computer had to freeze right before she got into the Stark Industries database. Right before she got answers.

Not only was Tony Stark Iron Man, but he was also a genius—maybe the smartest man ever alive—and if there was anywhere that she would learn the truth about whatever had killed her parents, it would be through his research. But no, her stupid computer had to freeze on her.

In its defence, the computer was several years old, so Kat couldn't be entirely surprised. Sighing, she pushed away from her desk, deciding that she could leave it to sort itself out.

She walked through the empty townhouse, making her way downstairs and collecting dust on her finger as she ran it along the bannister. She reached the kitchen and flipped the light switch, although only one bulb actually lit up. Something else that she would have to worry about soon. She opened the fridge and was relieved to find one last piece of cold pizza, almost a week old already, and ate it. She took small bites and chewed slowly in hopes of convincing her brain that she was fuller than she felt, but she wasn't surprised to find herself feeling just as hungry as she had before she ate.

Ever since her parents had died in what had been dubbed The Battle Of New York, Katarina had been eating less and less food, less and less frequently. Sure, she knew where her parents had kept their cash, she had every bit of allowance that she'd been saving for three years, and her mom's emergency credit card, but Kat didn't know how long she would need to make the money last, and there were more important things than food. Taxes, of course, and bills.

The internet bill most of all, the one that had allowed her to get into multiple government servers before she finally found SHIELD and the name Chitauri, before she found the redirect to the Stark Industries servers. Evidently, the genius superhero had decided to handle the research on the foreign creatures himself. It had taken Kat months to gather her information, but she finally managed, and had successfully gotten past the first two sets of firewalls before her computer froze.

Of course, unbeknownst to Katarina, her computer hadn't frozen. It had been intercepted by Jarvis. He had noticed the attempted hacking right away but had waited until it got past the first lines of defense before interfering. He watched as the hacker seemed to completely ignore all of the blueprints and schematics, all of the financials, and all of the information on the new Avengers Initiative, immediately searching for information regarding the Chitauri. It was only at that point, before any information was actually accessed, that he froze the unknown computer and paused Tony's music in the lab.

"What's up, J?" Tony asked.

"It appears that someone is attempting to hack into your servers to find information on the Chitauri," Jarvis reported.

"Any camera on the device?"

"None, Sir. The device is a Dell Inspiron 8600, it did not come with a camera, and it does not have one attached."

Tony hummed an acknowledgement, wondering how on earth someone with such an outdated computer had done such a decent job of hacking his servers that Jarvis had actually interfered, rather than let them fail on their own. But, someone had, and he would find out exactly who it was.

"Are there any other devices connected to the source wi-fi?" he asked finally.

"There are security cameras on three doors," Jarvis reported." The front door, the back door, and the garage."

"Check the recent feed, J, I want to know every person who's been in or out."

"Sir, the only person who has used any of these doors since May appears to be a child."

"In three months? That's impossible," Tony scoffed, "pull up the feed."

The AI did so immediately, and Tony began to watch.

To his shock, Jarvis appeared to be correct. On May 4th, the day of the Battle of Manhattan, Tony noted distantly, two adults walked out the front door. And then, nothing. On May 7th, a tiny girl with vibrant red hair walked out the front door. Ten minutes later she returned, carrying two plain plastic bags of groceries. As she walked up the porch, she narrowed her eyes, too cold for such a young child, at the camera before she opened the door. A week later, someone appeared at the door and the small girl met him there, accepting the box and handing him a bill, and he never stepped foot inside.

The trend continued for months, although the appearances got less and less frequent. She only seemed to go outside once every couple of weeks, coming back with minimal groceries and only ordering food two more times. Tony went through every day of footage from May until August, but no one else ever entered the house.

"Alright, J, find out everything about this house and who lives there."

"The house is owned by Antonio Aliano and Marie Dumont Aliano. Antonio Aliano was born in New York and raised in Montreal, moved back to New York with his wife and daughter three years ago, and worked for Anderson-Aliano Law until May. Marie Dumont Aliano was born and raised in Paris, studied international relations at McGill University in Montreal, where she met her husband, and worked for the United Nations until May, which was the reason that they moved to New York. They have one child, Katarina Amelia Aliano. Ten years old, genius level intellect, born with severe hearing loss and diagnosed at age six. Recently left Einstein Elementary Academy and is scheduled to start seventh grade at Midtown School Of Science And Technology in two weeks. She appears to have skipped a grade when she first moved to New York, and her academic records state that she should have skipped at least one, if not several more, but that her parents refused due to concerns regarding her socialization."

"Okay," Tony interrupted, "genius level intellect. Anything that suggests that she could get so close to our security?"

"Easily, Sir," Jarvis confirmed. "It appears that she is the only one in the household who could have."

"And what happened to her parents?" Tony asked, certain that he already knew the answer.

"According to the private records of Stark Industry, which she was attempting to access, they were both killed by the Chitauri. The records are quite well buried, and there are records showing that she now lives with an aunt. However, that aunt does not in fact exist."

"So, child genius loses her parents, hides and fakes records—presumably to stay off the radar—and tries to hack Stark Industries to find out what actually killed her parents? J, call Fury," he ordered, "and find out if she's already accessed SHIELD's records."

"Calling Nicholas Fury," Jarvis said, already pulling up everything that Kat had accessed in SHIELD and opening a video call to Fury.

"Stark," Fury greeted as soon as the ringing stopped, and the video loaded. "Don't tell me that Thor's visit is something other than a friendly check in?"

"Shockingly no, that's not what this is about," Tony said, forgoing any sort of greeting. "This is about a girl."

"A girl?" Fury echoed, "I hardly think you'd call me over _girl problems_."

"Not that kind of girl problems," Tony corrected, rolling his eyes. "A girl, an _eleven-year-old child_ hacked SHIELD and got past my first two layers of cybersecurity attempting to find out information on the Chitauri. According to Jarvis, her parents died in the attack and she edited her own records to make it seem as though she's now living with relatives, but she's alone in her parents' house learning a crapton of government secrets."

"Send Rogers to bring her in," Fury instructed. "He's the least recognizable at the moment because of his mask."

"You're not bringing a _child_ into SHIELD custody," Tony objected.

"I never said SHIELD custody," Fury smirked, and Tony groaned loudly.

"You don't mean—"

"You know exactly what I mean," he said, ending the call.

Tony sighed dramatically, looking up at the ceiling. "J, get everyone to the team living room."

"Right away, Sir."

"So, Fury wants us to bring her in," Tony concluded, having finally finished filling the other five Avengers in on Katarina.

"In… to SHIELD, or to the tower?" Steve asked.

"To the tower," Tony said.

"Why the tower?" Bruce asked quietly. "What are we supposed to do with her?"

"Make sure she isn't a threat? Foster her since her parents are dead? Figure out exactly what she knows? See if she can be an asset to SHIELD?" Clint listed off, counting each item on his fingers, and Natasha nodded in agreement.

"The Avengers Tower For Orphaned Geniuses," she drawled, and Tony couldn't help but laugh.

"Well Cap," he clapped, "want to be Fury's errand boy and pay our little genius a visit?"

Thanks for reading! I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I started this fic over seven years ago, and I decided to rewrite it about a year ago, so I'm beyond excited to finally share the new first chapter! And, if you want to hear more about her, feel free to visit me on tumblr Randomestfandoms-ocs (/tagged/katarina-amelia-aliano for everything I've made for her)


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